About the author
Tokyo Clash Japanese Pop Culture is written by Ralf Bähren, a German designer and photographer, that spent a year living and working in Tokyo, where half of the time he documented lots of close relationships and cultural discussion with Read more

The Black Eyed Peas - Just Can't Get Enough
Just Can't Get Enough is a song from the American hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas. It is the second single from the group's album The Beginning. The song was written Read more

Suica card
If you have used public transport in Tokyo you might well have used one of two smart travel cards: the Pasmo or a Suica card. In Tokyo the cards have pretty much the same function, both allowing you to Read more

Ippo Zutsu
Last month we wrote about 4TE (our original review), a new j-pop girl group. Now they're back with a second single and a brand new video to go along with it. The second single is called Ippo Zutsu Read more

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Moshi Moshi Tokyo App

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is the go-to person when it comes to all things popular in Tokyo these days with this new app Moshi Moshi Tokyo that has just been released in the iOS app store. It’s available for both iPhone and iPad, but not Android as of yet. I think it is great for those that might like to have a guide book in a regular book size and then just having it on an iPhone or iPad screen is a big bonus. The app is available in three languages, English, French and Japanese. Kyary puts on her guide uniform and is ready to be your personal guide to all her favorite places around Tokyo. You’ll find a mixture of places to see and shops to visit, plus more.

Moshi Moshi Tokyo Guide book

Moshi Moshi Tokyo is also the name of her guidebook that has been available for some time now, but is sadly only available in Japanese. But it can still be a great buy, just for the pictures alone. We got our copy of the book from cdjapan.co.jp and we found it quite a cheap buy. But now that the app is here – and in English, I’m sure next time we are heading to Tokyo we will have it loaded up to our iOS devices without a doubt.

The App

Once you have downloaded the app and you have opened it, you come to the library section where you get to chose what language you want to download. Note that it is only in English and French at the moment. I’m guessing that they will add Japanese later on. Here I clicked to download the English version. As stated in the App Store infomation about the app, you’re only getting a sample of the book, which allows you to read up to the first half of Harajuku station. In the future I’m guessing that you will either be able to download the rest of the book via the app library in sections at a set price, or maybe you will be able to download the book in its entirety, once it becomes available. The price and how the book will be available has yet to be announced.

App VS. Book

The app is a copy of the book, but I think between the app and the book is the interactive side to the app that somewhat wins over the book. Of course, that it is in English is great too. The interactive bits I’ve seen of the book so far are clickable boxes that pop up with more info about certain things (i.e. price of her uniform and more), rolling banners of what Kyary thinks of a certion shops, google map links to where the particular shop is located and more.

Final Thougts

I think if the pricing is right for the rest of the book I’m sure it will be a great success. I’m sure even if you’re not going to Tokyo you might end up buying just for all the stuff with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in it. If you are going to visit Tokyo it might be a great read on the plane trip there, helping you to decide where to visit first once you get to Tokyo. The only negative thing I can think of with the app is that all the pricing, shop locations, opening times for different places are as of 2012, which since then might have changed, moved or even shut down, so it would be great if they could do a bit of an update to the information. If you’re unsure, it might be a good idea to do a quick check on the web to see if that place or shop you want to go to is still there.

The app is available from the app store now via the button below or search for moshi moshi tokyo in the iTunes store.

Check our other posts on Kyary Pamyu Pamyu via this link or use the tag Kpp or Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in search box on the left.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu – Live in London 2014

We made our way to the O2 Empire Shepherds Bush a couple of hours before the show. We knew it would take a long time to get there because of a major tube strike in most parts of London. We managed to jump on a very cramped bus that would take us over to Shepherds Bush. We seemed to be stuck on that bus forever, passing a lot of stops where other KPP fans were waiting to get on a bus that wasnt full already. I hope they got there in the end.

Making our way there

We arrived in time and not thinking about the queues that might be outside the venue we got a bite to eat. Fed and happy we found our way over to the venue. We had to walk to the end of a very long line to get in, all the way round to the back of the venue, queuing along a residence street. There were two queues going separate ways, one for for the stalls and one for standing. In the queues we saw several girls dressed up to mimic Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s many outfits from her music videos. There were also lots of girls dressed in Lolita clothes and people dressed in other alternative styles. It was a real mixture of people, teens, adults and families with young children. One thing that we all had in common was the love for KPP and her music.

It wasn’t that bad to wait, not compared to last year’s show, where we were had to stand outside in cold rain and snow. At least this time the weather was nice and it was quite warm outside. Everyone was in high spirits as the queues started to move to the doors around 19ish. In no time at all our tickets had been checked and we were in.

Inside the venue

Inside they sold t-shirts, hoodies and scarfs. But we didn’t stop for that, as we were on our way up to the first level to find some seats, because it the tickets were unspecified. We were luckily enough to grab two seats next to one another on the back row with a great view. Most of all the other seats where occupied before we got there and the people that came in after us either had to split up or got standing places, which in a way was good to because there you could dance if you felt like it. Then we waited, with the other 2200 in the sold out venue, for the show to start.

The show

The stage was much more advanced than the previous concert Kyary performed in London. Last time she said she wanted to come back again with a more lavish show, and she kept her promise. The stage was designed as a children’s playroom with storybooks, bulding blocks, popcorn and a big teddy bear. The style suited her perfectly. She also had a large screen on stage, where a video was played during one of the breaks and outfit changes.

Kyary treated us to a show packed with hits like Hitachi, Candy Candy and Tsukematsukeru. The crowd cheered, sang and danced throughout the show, and when she sang the hits Fashion Monster and PonPonPon so it was clear that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has a very strong fan base in UK.

-

Last time Kyary performed in London she only spoke Japanese during the show, and an interpreter translated what she said. But this time she had no interpreter with her. Instead, she spoke a little English, using notes written down on a piece of paper which she read aloud from. She also spoke some Japanese this time too, and judging by the reations of the audience it seemed like most understood what she was saying.

During the show, she wore four different outfits: first she was wearing some kind of furry creation, then she switched to a cute pink dress and bow in her hair. Another change of clothes and now she had a different color of her dress, and an even bigger bow in her hair. The final change of outfit was when she was cheered back on stage again, and now she wore a teeshirt, a skirt and bunny ears. In addition to doing a few more songs, she took the opportunity to have her picture taken with her dancers, and with the audience in the background.

The last song of the evening was Chan Chaka Chan Chan, a perfect song to end the show, with the lyrics going “see you, see you, see you again. See you, see you, see you next time.”

Quick Japan magazine

Quick Japan magazine is a youth culture magazine that comes out on bi-monthly basis. The magazine features lots of articles on the music scene in Japan and the whole magazine, which resembles the looks of a book, is in Japanese.

The main reason why I bought the magazine was because Quick Japan Vol. 107 had a huge feature on the Kyary Pamyu Pamyu 2013 tour she did in Europe, with a loads of great photos from the tour, and pictures of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu walking around the streets of Paris while fiming a part of her TV show “TV John”.

So if you’re a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu fan, this a great magazine to add to your collection! I purchased my copy online from cdjapan for 900yen, plus postage.

I also see now thats there’s an app in the Japanese iTunes app store where you can buy the magazine from as well.

Here below are a couple of the pages that can be found in this issue of Quick Japan.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu World tour 2014

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has just published her world tour dates for this year. After her world tour last year (which was a success, with tickets selling out for shows in London and New York) I’m sure that this time the tickets will sell out just as fast or even faster, in line with her becoming more and more popular around the world.

The Tour

This year her world tour will start off with shows in the US, with five shows dotted around the states, and then a show over in Canada. She is also playing a bunch of shows around in Europe – UK, France and Germany. Same as last time, but at different venues. This time the venues in Europe will be bigger ones than her last shows, so now more people will get to see her. Which is great for all those that missed out last time she toured in this part of the world.

This tour is said to be an even more engaging and exciting event than her foreign dates from last year. What I would love to see is more of a setup, like she has on her Japanese parts of her tours, with lots of dancer and costume changes and big stages. But of course that would be costly to transport all of that over the world, so maybe it would take a trip to Japan if I wanted to see that. With her new album that came out last year (our review from the album is here: Nanda Collection) I think we will get to hear lots of songs from the new album, and of couse songs from her early stuff. Im sure when and where ever you see KPP, it will be a great show.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Nanda Collection

On the 26th of June 2013 the Japanese pop star princess Kyary Pamyu Pamyu released her 2nd album. It was a much awaited album with many fans waiting for it become available, not just in Japan but all over the world, after her world tour making herself even more popular around the world than she was before. I’m sure that help boost sales outside of to Japan, so much so that when the album was released it debuted at number 1 in the Japanese charts and in the US it fell in at number 2 in the Billboard World Music chart.

Nanda Collection

Her second album is called Nanda Collection (なんだこれくしょん) which is roughly romanized as “Nanda kore ku shon”. If you were to break it down, it sort of means, Nanda kore “What in the world is this?” and kore ku shon “collection”. The title is a bit of play on words.

The artwork for the covers of the CD are, as usual, very different to what you might find with a normal artist. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu always likes to make the cover and photos odd, but odd in a fun and different way.

The album was releasd in two different versions, which is quite common in Japan it seems. The first being the regular version where you get the CD in a normal CD case. The limited edition is for the hardcore fans you could say. The difference between both versions are that with the regular one you just get the CD in a standard CD case and the limited edition version comes in more of a book form case, and it includes a photo book with many great photos for KPP, and an extra DVD with four of the music videos from the album on it. Both editions have different art work to them, the regular shows KPP standing with a puppet and the limited edition has her dressed up like a peacock.

The music

The album has a mixture of genes, from rock songs (like Fashion Monster) to more alien songs (like Invader Invader) Kyary is to have said. Two of the songs from album feature in TV adverts that have being running on TV in Japan – “Kurakura” and “Noriko to Norio”, which are being used by KFC and the mobile phone company AU respectively.

Also this time Kyary has worked with Yasutaka Nakata from Capsule, who wrote and composed all the song for the album. The album consist of 12 songs, with a few of the singles that had already been released, like Fashion Monster, Invader Invader and Ninjari Ban Ban.

I think the album is a strong album following of her previous album, which had many great songs from her. Of couse, her music is not for everyone. Playing her songs to someone that has never seen or heard of her before might think you’re crazy. But youre not crazy, just different in a good way, with a good taste of Japanese pop music, you could say.

Buying the album

I bought my album from CDJapan’s online site on pre-order. The album was shipped fastly to me as soon as it was releasedon the 26th of June. It also included 4 postcards of KPP, as an extra, which is something that CDJapan does from time to time. Most of the waiting I had to do was when the album got stuck in customs for almost a week, which also meant I had to pay import fees, which I wasn’t happy about. So do remember that its always a risk that you might end up having to pay extra for it when it arrives in your country.

The versions cost as follow: For the regular one you will pay around 3000yen and for the limited edition one you pay about 3619yen from CDJapan. At the moment the limited edition is out of print, so you might need to look on eBay for the limited edition. The album is also available as a digital download via iTunes.

The album is a great buy in any version and if you are a KPP fan I recommend you give it a listen.